Humanitarian League

The Humanitarian League was an organisation formed in England in 1891 by
Henry Salt who was also the General Secretary and Editor. Other founding members were John Galsworthy, Colonel W. L. Blenkinsop Coulson. The League's inaugural metting was at the house of Alice Lewis and she was to be its first and only treasurer.

Its aims were to enforce the principle that it is iniquitous to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being. According to their manifesto "the Humanitarian League has been established on the basis of an intelligible and consistent principle of humaneness – that it is iniquitous to inflict suffering, directly or indirectly, on any sentient being, except when self-defence or absolute necessity can justly be pleaded."[1]

The League opposed both corporal and capital punishment. Its other objectives included the banning of all hunting as a sport, and it was also strongly opposed to vivisection.[2] The Humanitarian League thus anticipated the modern animal rights movement. Many of its members were vegetarians.[3] However, the league was not confined to animal protection. They were responsible for the advancement of human rights as well. For example, they were largely responsible for the banning of flogging with birch in the Royal Navy in 1906 and campaigning to amend the law relating to imprisonment for debt and other non-criminal offences.[4] The league also opposed flogging in schools and vaccinations because of the pain.